Huang Zhihua is being interviewed by the media. Photographed by Chen Zhiqiang. At 11:31 PM on January 13th, a serious fire accident occurred at a shop along the south side of Zhangshen Avenue No. 122 in Zhangyang Community. After all the officers and soldiers from the Zhangmutou Public Security Fire Brigade fought hard to rescue, they saved a total of 22 trapped people. The accident resulted in 8 deaths and 1 injury. However, after the incident, what the local residents talked about most was not the big fire, but the firefighters who sacrificed themselves to save others. During the intense rescue operation, touching scenes emerged... A young firefighter crawled into the scorching smoke, endured the choking, and gave his gas mask to the child waiting to be rescued. He suddenly fainted due to inhaling a large amount of toxic smoke.
Enlisted in 2005, currently serving as the special operations team leader
He is strong and brave, facing the sea of fire and poison gas, he was the first to rush into the fire scene; he is fearless, crawling into the thick smoke and giving his gas mask to a child; he fights hard, after saving the 15th survivor, he suddenly fainted. He is Huang Zhihua, the team leader of the special operations team and the driver of the duty vehicle at the Zhangmutou Public Security Fire Brigade.
Huang Zhihua is from Datian Town, Wuhua County, Meizhou City. He is 22 years old, enlisted in 2005, and this year marks his sixth year in the army. He is currently serving at the Zhangmutou Public Security Fire Brigade.
During his six years of service, he loves the military and has dedicated his youth to firefighting work; he has entered the fire scene countless times to save trapped people; he was selected for the "Dongguan Public Security Fire Rescue Team" and participated in the rescue work of the "5・12" Wenchuan earthquake in heavy disaster areas such as Dujiangyan, Mianzhu, and Pingwu in Sichuan Province; he won the third-class merit in the Dongguan Municipal Public Security Fire Service Skills Competition; he has participated in many firefighting rescues and was rated as an "outstanding soldier" due to his outstanding performance, receiving four commendations.
The current captain of the Zhangmutou Brigade of the Dongguan Public Security Fire Corps, Guo Zhijun, called him a "good seedling" in fire fighting; Captain Cao Zixin of the Dongguan Public Security Fire Corps' Zhangmutou Detachment called him the "reckless three men" on the fire scene; comrade Huang Yaojian called him the "iron-blooded man" in the military camp. It is understood that Huang Zhihua has served in the public security fire brigades of Changping, Houjie, and other towns, and was transferred to serve in the Zhangmutou Public Security Fire Brigade in February 2010.
Decisive and swift, the first to rush into the fire scene
That night, after receiving the fire alarm, Huang Zhihua quickly arrived at the fire scene. The special operations team where Huang Zhihua was located dispatched four highly skilled firefighters, while Huang Zhihua, as the main member, served as the duty vehicle driver, mainly responsible for rescue, fire scene vigilance, ensuring the smooth passage of firefighters and fire trucks.
Upon arriving at the scene, the five-story building was spewing black smoke, and muffled cries could be heard inside and outside the building. Without hesitation, Huang Zhihua opened the car door and ran to the rear compartment, shouting loudly: "Quick, get the equipment!" Cao Zixin, sitting in the front passenger seat, saw Huang Zhihua's actions and quickly got out of the car... A strong flashlight, gas mask, air respirator, and three-section metal ladder weighing a total of 12.5 kilograms were strapped onto Huang Zhihua's body in just 18 seconds, and he was the first to rush into the fire scene.
Time is life in rescue operations. The dense smoke greatly reduced the visibility on the scene. With his keen hearing, Huang Zhihua determined that someone was calling for help on the third floor. Based on his experience, he directly extended the metal ladder to the balcony on the third floor. Since the metal ladder could only accommodate one person climbing at a time, Huang Zhihua signaled his comrades with gestures to prepare to receive the trapped individuals.
Enduring the smoke, giving the gas mask to the child
When Huang Zhihua climbed to the edge of the third-floor balcony, he found a family of four trapped there, including women and two children. Seeing this situation, Huang Zhihua quickly threw the three gas masks he was carrying into the balcony and shouted loudly: "Quick, put the mask on the children, don't let the children inhale the smoke. Then pass the children to..." Before Huang Zhihua finished speaking, the scorching smoke already made it almost impossible for him to open his eyes, but he gritted his teeth and endured the smoke, shouting loudly: "Hold on, everything will be fine soon. Pass the children out first..."
Despite blurred vision, despite the choking smoke, and despite feeling dizzy himself, this was Huang Zhihua's only motivation —— save the children first. Huang Zhihua quickly saved one of the children and safely delivered them to the ground, then climbed up the metal ladder again to the third floor... This back-and-forth, Huang Zhihua saved the entire family of four from the fire scene. "In such situations, there are no other methods, you can't hold your breath for a long time, you can only inhale the smoke. Sometimes, there really isn't time to think about so much, you only have one thought in mind —— save as many people as possible as quickly as possible."
The fire is merciless, but people have feelings. The ones saved were the Huang Fuming family. Seeing his wife and children safe, he was grateful to the firefighters who saved them: "At the fire scene, I passed my child to Huang Zhihua. He held the child in his arms and slowly climbed down, then quickly climbed up again. To be honest, seeing him was like seeing hope. I want to say 'thank you' to him."
Rescued 15 people, fainted due to inhaling smoke
"Must be fast, must save more people." Huang Zhihua pointed to the second floor and said to his comrade Huang Yaojian. For Huang Zhihua, the weight on his shoulders was responsibility. Every time he entered the fire scene, as long as he still saw someone waving or heard someone shouting, Huang Zhihua would not give up... "When I touched the hand of a survivor, I felt very happy, thinking I must help them get out of danger."
After Huang Zhihua saved the 15th trapped person from the fire scene, he suddenly fainted due to inhaling a large amount of smoke and physical exhaustion. The comrades present immediately carried Huang Zhihua onto the ambulance and sent him to Shixin Hospital for treatment.
When he woke up, it was already noon the next day. Huang Zhihua saw Huang Yaojian guarding by his bedside and asked: "Is the fire under control? Have all the trapped people been saved?" Huang Yaojian told him that the fire had been extinguished and all the trapped people had been saved... This allowed Huang Zhihua to breathe a sigh of relief.
Feeling good about himself, Huang Zhihua was eager to be discharged from the hospital. Unable to persuade him otherwise, the attending doctor informed him that there was still a large amount of toxic gas remaining in his body, which needed to be treated for some time to be expelled. Additionally, he needed to rest properly to recover fully.
Extended Reading
Zhangmutou Town Party Secretary Li Mantang:
"This is a true reflection of the 'army loving the people'"
Li Mantang, the Party Secretary and Chairman of the People's Congress of Zhangmutou Town, and Luo Weilun, the Deputy Town Secretary and Town Mayor, upon learning about the heroic deeds of this decorated firefighting hero, formed a consolation team and visited Huang Zhihua at the hospital with flowers and condolence money.
Subsequently, Li Mantang expressed: "Comrade Huang Zhihua is a role model for us to learn from. He disregarded his own safety and gave the gas mask to the trapped individuals in order to save them. This is a true reflection of the 'army loving the people.'"
City-wide deployment for large-scale fire safety inspection and rectification
Cheng Hongbo: Fully eliminate blind spots
Recently, Vice Mayor Cheng Hongbo of Dongguan City convened another meeting of the Director of the Fire Safety Committee, conveyed the instructions of the main leaders of the municipal Party committee and government, and deployed the implementation of the large-scale fire safety inspection and rectification campaign. It was required that the Fire Safety Office combine the inspection and rectification activities to formulate an efficient and feasible supervision plan, adopting methods such as undercover inspections and random checks to achieve identifying problems, rectifying problems, and solving problems, and during the supervision process, focus on key areas, jointly solve difficult points, and comprehensively eliminate blind spots.
Subsequently, Secretary of the Zhangmutou Town Government Chen Bo quickly convened a full staff meeting of the investigation and handling group for the January 13th fire accident in Zhangmutou Town, clarified the division of labor, and drew backbone forces from the public security, safety supervision, fire control, supervision, prosecution, trade union departments, and divided them into four accident investigation and handling groups: technical group, investigation group, comprehensive group, and aftermath group. It was required that members of each group strictly follow relevant regulations and procedures, coordinate with the accident handling group of Zhangmutou Town, and comprehensively carry out accident investigations and aftermath handling work.
Related
Zhangmutou: Divided into 11 routes to thoroughly investigate fire hazards
To draw lessons from the "January 13" fire accident, starting from the morning of January 15, the leadership team members of Zhangmutou Town in Dongguan City, as well as the heads of various units and communities, were divided into 11 supervision teams and respectively went deep into various public places in the nine communities of the town, as well as large enterprises, malls, supermarkets, schools, plastic markets, etc., to conduct fire safety inspections.
This fire safety inspection was divided into 11 groups, each led by a leader of Zhangmutou Town and involving the heads of relevant functional departments. The focus was on checking the fire safety hazards of small shops and rental houses. During the inspection, members of the supervision team distributed fire safety publicity flyers to shop operators, rental house operators, and tenants, patiently conducted fire safety education, and arranged for designated personnel to carefully register the fire safety hazards of the inspected shops and rental houses, requiring operators to quickly rectify and ensure the elimination of fire safety hazards.
In the Zhangyang community where the January 13 fire occurred, the supervision team members further subdivided into four groups and conducted a grid-based inspection of the Zhangyang community according to the area. Before the inspection began, relevant responsible persons of the supervision team emphasized the importance of this fire safety inspection and required the members of the supervision team to maintain discipline and seriously carry out their work. Near the fire scene, at a hardware store, the supervision team members distributed fire safety publicity flyers to the owner. The owner stated that the fire at nearby shops had deeply moved him, and similar fire safety publicity was very necessary because he was not very familiar with related fire safety knowledge. He expressed gratitude to the supervision team members for conducting fire safety publicity work at his doorstep.
After the "January 13" fire accident in Zhangmutou Town, leaders of Dongguan City such as Liu Zhigeng and Li Yuquan made comments, on one hand requiring every effort to treat the injured and reduce casualties, actively doing a good job in the aftermath of the deceased; on the other hand requiring the town to quickly ascertain the cause of the fire, earnestly drawing lessons, applying reasoning to similar situations, and preventing similar accidents from happening again. According to the main responsible persons of Zhangmutou Town, in the upcoming work, they will further find problems and eliminate hidden dangers throughout the town, further do a good job in public fire safety education, and enhance the public's awareness of fire prevention safety. It is learned that starting from today, the town will continue to carry out fire safety inspections during working days and holidays, eliminating all kinds of fire safety hazards, preventing fires from happening again, and allowing the masses to spend a safe and harmonious Spring Festival.
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